The Rural Voice, 2001-01, Page 27in hot water for the first time.
Everyone battles in a washtub.
Without hydro, it is quiet, peaceful,
and cheap. The only noise is the
battery clock ticking and the frogs
singing.
May 20 — We tear out the old siairs,
so use a stepladder to get to
bed. Douglas's face is
covered with mosquito bites.
The kids arc: startled by a
snake near the garden and
run screaming back to the
house.
May 23 — Donna Jean says,
"I know why Dad wanted to
come here. Because it looks
like we have the whole
world."
May 25 — We install a used
oil tank on a platform in
Donna Jean's bedroom that
will be our indoor water
supply tank, bury a water
line from the well to the
house, and thie generator
pumps water up' to the tank.
Gravity does the rest. It is
great to have running water
instead of runnin g for it.
May 29 — Two deer are in
the front field until the bus
comes to pick up Donna
Jean. I kill two snakes, and
killdeer nest in the garden.
May 31 — We have a cool shower in
the rain on the front doorstep.
June 1 — A major outing to town. The
TV is battery-operated, so when it
runs down, we install it in the Jeep,
and it charges up by the time we get
to town. Donald buys two horses, a
cow, three calves. and nine heifers.
They are content here. So am I.
June 4 — I put buckets under the leaks
in the roof.
June 5 — Donald's brother Jamie,
who farms 10 miles away, brings his
tractor to help work on the house. He
hooks a cable from the tractor to the
corner post of the deteriorating back
porch and yanks. We now have a nice
deck instead of an e yesore.
New windows are installed,
insulation done, and a new front
porch and greenhouse built on the
south side. The bathroom sink, tub,
and toilet are in place, but not hooked
up to any septic system yet.
June 7 — We go cahnoeing and see a
bittern, baby ducks, and hear lots of
grouse thumping. The propane
system is installed, so we now have
functioning propane -powered fridge,
lights, and stove. The fridge is from
an old camping trailer, small as a bar
fridge, with a miniature freezer.
When we go to town, we buy a box
of six ice cream bars and eat them in
spots on its back. The meat is much
like veal, being so young and tender.
August 11 — I finally have kitchen
cupboards!
August 13 — We swim in a waterhole
at the' river. The water is six feet
deep, so Donald and Donna Jean
wear life jackets, and
Douglas wears water wings.
I can swim. Everyone has a
good cool off.
August 14 — No mosquitoes
in the house now, just flies.
They are easier to kill.
Douglas worries that we
don't have any wood piled
yet. He didn't notice we
don't have a stove yet either.
September 11 — We get a
used, 1,000 -gallon, steel,
underground fuel tank. I
paint it with tar as it was
kind of rusty. It will be our
septic tank.
Donald gets some used
railway ties to build a barn.
There's been a fox around,
so we'll soon have to protect
our chickens or we won't
have any eggs. We sure miss
the folks at home.
October 15 — So many things
I'd like to get finished, but
it's a good job I have lots of patience.
We get the barn started — put railway
ties in for posts, and Donald pulls
tamarack poles for the roof out of the
bush with the three-wheeler.
We get the septic tank and
weeping bed buried, and the
bathroom drains hooked up. The
septic system is crude and
homemade, but functional, so I am
grateful. We hope to get the hot water
heater and more propane lights
hooked up soon. It is pretty hard to
get up these mornings when it's dark.
The kids use battery lamps and we
have a coal oil lantern. We move the
washing machine down cellar so the
pump wouldn't freeze. Donald calls a
moose from the deck one night, and
gets pretty excited when he hears it
crashing through the willows north of
the house.
November 7 — The hens are now
chicken soup. Two froze to death, so
Donald butchered the rest. We've one
woodstove going every day, and
some days two.
November 12 — In the bush northwest
of the house, Donald finds nice high,
Sandra and Donald and their
young family Donna Jean, six,
and Douglas, three, found time
to relax amid their busy
edule renovating the house.
find a
the parking lot.
June 10 - Donald goes looking for
Saskatoon berries and blueberries. He
brings home a big bouquet of wild
roses, snowball blooms, buttercups
and lupins.
June 14 — Something growls in the
bush and scares the cattle — probably
a bear.
June 16 — I bake for the first time in
my propane stove, and go looking for
wild strawberries. As we round a
curve in the river in the canoe, a
moose raises his head from grazing
on water lilies. Big thrill!
June 19 — Eight pelicans land on the
river. Gather four eggs from our hens
which wander around the yard. The
kids catch butterflies.
August 9 — We go to the dump and
see a mother bear and her cub, cute
from a distance, and the baby crawled
to the very top of a big poplar tree.
On the way home, a small deer jumps
right out in front of the Jeep and is
killed. The kids are quite upset.
Donald slits its throat and Toads it
into the back, telling the kids not to
look. It was a big fawn, with white
JANUARY 2001 23